


Why the Hidden Mist is Like That: a summary

by short_tandem_repeats



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Headcanon, Kirigakure | Hidden Mist Village, Meta, Worldbuilding, queering the fic/meta binary, this is just stuff i made up but kishi never explained anything about this place so i have to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24282256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/short_tandem_repeats/pseuds/short_tandem_repeats
Summary: How come Kirigakure is so absolutely horrible?
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18





	Why the Hidden Mist is Like That: a summary

Water Country is a shitty place. It’s an archipelago in the middle of nowhere in the ocean, there’s not enough soil to grow anything, there’s practically no fresh water to be had, half the place is freezing mountains and the other half is parasite-ridden swamp, and that’s without getting into the kind of people this place breeds. The kind of wars this place breeds, where every clan is scrambling not just for power, but for enough resources to continue existing.

Byakuren, the Shodai Mizukage, was an old man when Kiri was founded, and you can imagine what it takes to grow old in Water Country. Byakuren was old, and tough and canny and cruel when reports started bubbling up from the south about some young upstart in Fire Country who had a plan to maybe make everyone kill each other less. Byakuren was old, and had seen too much of war to be enamored of it anymore, but to ensure a future for his clan, and a future for a nation slowly tearing itself apart, he could go to war one more time.

So he and his faction subdued the ninja of the Land of Water, and yoked thirty or forty squabbling clans together by force. Naturally, the founding clans got the best of everything, those who had seen the light got second best, and the conquered had to be kept under heel. This was Kirigakure, and it would need something to bind it together after the fear faded out and the blood washed away.

This is not how a Kiri-nin would tell it. This is not how a shinobi in any of the villages would tell you of their respective creeds, but this is how it happened, and how it had to happen: you give your people some platitude. You give your people something to believe in, something to fight for. You give them something that makes all the killing seem worthwhile. You give them something to replace a soul, when they kill it or sell it or have it ripped out of them. You give the oppressed something to make them think that this is right, that this is the only way, and you give the powerful something to make them believe they deserve power. You weave it into the culture of the village, you teach it to your bright new generations, you propagate this shallow falsehood until it becomes the truth of your people, and they forget it’s a lie because it’s all they have.

You can couch it in pretty language if you like; Konoha and Iwa did. But Kiri didn’t bother. This is Water Country, remember. The people here survived only by stubbornness and pride and ruthless drive, and their ninja village was built in the same way. To tear forward blindly - to continue and leave whatever it is left behind to die - to scratch out an existence, no matter how hopeless and horrifying - that is survival. The platitude flourished easily.

Near Kiri, there is a gorge where a river meets the sea. The water has cut a ragged wound, like that left by a kunai, in the stone; wearing away bit by bit, year after century after millennium, never swayed, never changed. They take the genin, the ones who survive graduation, down the gorge to see Shodai-sama’s grave. It's a plain affair. What is important is the lesson, the truth that sustains Kirigakure, the lie that keeps it as it is.

Kiri is not Konoha - it has no need for pretty words. The Will of Water is only this: _Keep Going._


End file.
